I have been working at ATS Automation Tooling full-time (more than 3 years)

Pros

Varied and interesting work. Competitive pay and benefits. There has been a lot of turn over at my location but the core group is very talented and willing to teach you a few cool tricks. This is one of the best engineering groups I have worked with.

Intimidation style management technique. Managers speak out of both sides of their mouths. Very high stress environment with no support whatsoever from management. Several people in management positions that have no clue regarding their job.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Without cleaning house of all existing management, there will be no improvement.

Full time Technicians are very skilled and competent, however the project Leads are overburdened with sketchy and unreliable temporary labor, impossible project schedules and ineffective management. They are often expected to work extensive overtime in order to deliver projects on time, while other departments run about in chaos with no accountability.

Cons

The story behind my title? I was hired as a Quality Engineer for what I now believe was for appearance's sake for ISO accreditation. There is no core belief in quality at this company and my time was considered the least valuable, therefore making me the perfect candidate to clean whiteboards prior to a corporate visit. Thank god for that chemistry degree; I was able to identify isopropanol as the perfect solvent for stubborn pen marks!Very high turnover, leaving behind an incompetent administrative staff with only a few suffering bright stars. Poor morale overall.Despite half of the lower office space being empty, they cram four engineers into a shared cubicle space meant for no more than two people. Disruptions are impossible to avoid, so you must be adept at working in a crowd.It was my mistake to think that previous poor reviews might no longer be accurate, especially since a drastic restructuring that outsourced the majority of fabrication. I was very wrong. If you value quality, your career and competent management look elsewhere!

Due to the nature of the business, you get to work on very exciting automation projects. Every project is unique providing opportunity for learning new things. In short, ATS to an engineer is like a candy store to a kid!

Cons

Pretty flat organization with not much room to grow. If you want to be an engineer for the rest of your career, this is the place but if you aspire to move to management, your options are somewhat limited.

Salary, benefits above average. Very clean environment. Exposure to many different industries, good mentoring.

Cons

CEO picked by hedge funds . Years of talk on turning the ship around but has come full circle to what the founder was doing, buying up competition and companies that compliment the business. Complete disappointment to employee's and share holders. Nepotism rampant despite policy

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Huge disconnect between divisions. Investor relations much to be desired. Hire someone in HR that actually understands the benefits and not just offer a 1 800 number.I will rate culture and values on the long term employee's that thrive and assist despite the newest regime. Hang in there folks.

I have been working at ATS Automation Tooling full-time (more than a year)

Pros

Great product lineup and very talented engineering group with years of experience. Global presence is impressive if they would take advantage of it.

Cons

Management group is delusional. Employee turnover is extremely high due to people quitting and/or getting fired.Most customers/prospects are treated poorly unless they have $10 Million or more to spend (not kidding).

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Focus on your customers and solving their manufacturing problems and the long term profitability will come.

Great place to learn about current technologies in the field of automated assembly and test machinery. Lots of good people at the worker level...few at the management level. Still building good quality equipment, but nothing at all at the level seen prior to ATS acquisition.

Cons

Management. The worst I've ever seen, and there seems to be nothing happening to improve the situation. A solid "good-ol-boy" network in place, politically protecting those who are ill-qualified to perform. Politics rules the day, especially when any corporate level management becomes involved. From the CEO down, Command and Conquer is the game plan of the day which serves to demoralize, demotivate and generally destroy the last of the remaining good people who actually perform work.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Drop command and control, learn to trust your employees and read some modern business books to learn how to interact with your employees without hurting them every time. Adopt intellectual honesty and welcome opinions from the ranks and you'll get the information you need to heal the company. Until management changes or is replaced, the best talent in the workforce will continue to exit the company at an alarming rate as has been the case since the ATS acquisition.

Every department was very cut-throat. They rated their engineers against each other. You almost hoped that everyone else would messed up his project. The senior engineers would not mentor the junior engineers. There was no sharing of information.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Change the pay structure for senior engineers want the whole company to be successful, not just their projects

varied and innovative technologies, always being able to work on something new; very creative job. The company still claims to be the world's largest automation systems provider - one has to wonder with all the plant closures.

Cons

instability in corporate management; current executive team is ruthless. Anthony Caputo (current CEO) does not know automation and is never available to the employees. His team is also inexperienced in automation. Over the last 5 years probably about 50% of the talent (engineers, managers, toolmakers) have left due to the instable environment that has been created.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

in the custom systems integration industry, engineers are not equal - work to keep the talent. Don't micromanage; the level of bureaucracy at the flagship division in cambridge is insane. the environment promotes thinking of oneself, of being "exclusive" rather than "inclusive", of being forced to justify decision - very low trust